Call For Papers

This special issue of the I-LanD Journal will focus on L2 identities in the age of transnational mobility. It will be edited by Annarita Magliacane (Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom), Anne Marie Devlin (University College Cork, Ireland) and Noriko Iwasaki (Nanzan University, Japan).

Submission of abstracts
Authors wishing to contribute to this issue are invited to send an abstract of their proposed article of no more than 300 words (excluding references) in MS Word format by 1st November 2019. Proposals should not contain the authors' name and academic/professional affiliation and should be accompanied by an email including such personal information and sent to: a.magliacane@ucc.ie; amdevlin@ucc.ie;niwasaki@nanzan-u.ac.jp and ilandjournal@unior.it.
Please put as subject line “I-LanD Special Issue 1/2020–abstract submission”.

Important dates
In order to publish this issue by June 2020, the most important dates to remember are as follows:
-Submission of abstracts: by November 1st, 2019
-Notification of acceptance/rejection: by November 10th, 2019
-Submission of chapters: by February 8th, 2020
-Submission of final manuscript: by May 2020
-Publication of special issue: June 2020

Description
In the current era, transnational mobility is a normative aspect of life for millions of people worldwide. Reasons for mobility are manifold. They include study, work, adventure, refuge and can be voluntary or involuntary. Transnational mobility is especially encouraged in the area of education with UNESCO estimating that more than 5 million higher-level students study abroad (“UIS Statistics,” n.d.). The internationalisation of education is actively supported by national and
transnational organisations such as Erasmus+ (2014-2020) in Europe, the Institute of International Education in the US, and Science without Frontiers in Brazil; however, this represents a small proportion of those engaged in mobility. For example, within the EU just under 20 million people of working age live in an EU state other that of their citizenship (“EU citizens living in another Member State - statistical overview - Statistics Explained,” n.d.).

Hence, transnational mobility experiences are numerous, diverse and variegated, but are often underpinned by the common denominator of the need to conduct everyday life through a second or subsequent language and, in tandem, the struggle to negotiate an identity through another language and environment. However, despite this constellation of experiences, research has, in the main, focused on students of languages and their linguistic gains. This focus on institutionally sanctioned experiences of transnational mobility has resulted in the overlooking of the full range of rationales for mobility within the body of research. Such rationales, or status in the host community (Magliacane 2017; Barron 2019), play a crucial role in language and identity development because of the differential opportunities for second language (L2) contact and use that such status or
rationales give rise to (Magliacane & Howard 2019: 74).

Notwithstanding under-representation in the realm of diversity of mobility experiences, the importance of the identity of the L2 user during mobility has been gaining traction in research in second language acquisition (Anya, 2017; Benson, Barkhuizen, Bodycott, & Brown, 2012; Block, 2006; Devlin, 2018; Iwasaki, 2018; Jackson, 2008; Kinginger, 2013; Mitchell, Tracy-Ventura, &
McManus, 2015; Norton, 2000). It has been noted that learners’ access to the language is not just shaped by their desire and motivation for acquisition “but also by those of the others with whom they interact —people who may view learners as embodiments of identities shaped by gender, race, and social class” (Kinginger, 2004, p. 221). However, the imposition of essentialist identities is not always unidirectional as L2 users may likewise impose identities shaped by their perceptions of a range of identity issues on the residents of the mobility environment. Additionally, state policies and political climates can act as a barrier or a conduit to the negotiation of L2 identities.

With this in mind, the current special issue aims to broaden the range of transnational mobility contexts experienced by L2 users by looking beyond the experience of institutional learners while simultaneously illuminating multidirectional identity negotiation. Issues to be considered include but are not limited to: the linguistic enactment of identity, perceptions of identity enactment from the perspective of the user or of others; the impact of language policies on the possibilities to enact an identity, the shaping of L2 identities in differential political climates, the role of status and L2 identities in language development.

EU citizens living in another Member State -statistical overview -Statistics Explained. (n.d.). Retrieved July 23, 2019, from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.phptitle=EU_citizens_living_in_another_Member_State_-_statistical overview.

Magliacane, A. (2017). Sociopragmatic development in study abroad contexts: the role of learner status in the use of second language pragmatic markers. PhD Thesis, University of Naples Federico II/University College Cork.

Magliacane, A., & Howard, M. (2019). The role of learner status in the acquisition of pragmatic markers during study abroad: the use of ‘like’ in L2 English, Journal of Pragmatics 146, 72–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.01.026.